Using Vegetation Indices to Characterize Vegetation Cover Change in the Urban Areas of Southern China

Yu Zhang, Pengcheng Wang, Tianwei Wang, Jingwei Li, Zhaoxia Li, Mingjun Teng and Yunbing Gao
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Yu Zhang: College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences/Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center for Forestry Information, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Pengcheng Wang: College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences/Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center for Forestry Information, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Tianwei Wang: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Jingwei Li: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Zhaoxia Li: College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Mingjun Teng: College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences/Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center for Forestry Information, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Yunbing Gao: Beijing Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-18

Abstract: Vegetation is essential for the provision of ecosystem services. To ensure that ecosystem services are provided, urban planning must consider vegetation cover in both urban core areas and in peripheral areas. This study explored changes in vegetation cover in both urban core and peripheral areas (buffers of 5, 10 and 15 km from the urban core areas) and the relationships between these changes and urban development. To compare the differences in vegetation cover between the urban core and peripheral areas, we developed two vegetation indices, the vegetation influence strength index (VISI) and the vegetation restoration index (VRI), using normalized difference vegetation index datasets and nighttime stable light data from 50 cities in southern China. Using these two indices, we clustered the cities into four types based on their vegetation cover characteristics. The city types varied among the different regions of the study area and cities of the same type tended to occur together geographically. In addition, the two indices showed temporal changes during the study period: A downtrend from 1992 to 2000, an uptrend from 2000 to 2005, and stability from 2005 to 2013. Furthermore, in all cities, the range of the VISI was larger in the peripheral areas than in the urban core areas. However, the range of the VRI was smaller in the peripheral areas than in the urban core areas. As the distance to the urban core areas increased, the fluctuation range of both the VISI and VRI decreased, suggesting that there was less vegetation disturbance farther from the urban core areas. We also showed that changes in vegetation cover were related to differences in urbanization rates, gross domestic products, population densities, and stages of urban development among the cities. These results provide scientific support for urban planning and sustainable development in rapid urbanization areas.

Keywords: urban expansion; urban core and peripheral areas; vegetation; change trend; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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